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Results of Western intervention in Libya

A picture taken on October 22, 2014 in Libya’s Benghazi shows smoke billowing from buildings after the Libyan air force, loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar, pounded the buildings reported to be used for storing ammunition belonging to Ansar al-Sharia.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

presstv

On October 20, 2011, the leader of the North African state of Libya was brutally assassinated in the city of Sirte. Col. Muammar Gaddafi had been leading a struggle to defend his country from a war of regime-change coordinated and financed by the United States and NATO.

Since the overthrow of the Jamahiriya system of government in Libya, the social conditions prevailing inside the country are by no means stable. Various factions, most of which were utilized as ground troops in the Pentagon-NATO aerial war between March 19 and Oct. 31 of 2011, remained locked in a mortal conflict for control over the oil-rich state.

Conflicting sources of political power backed up by armed militias exist in the two largest cities of Tripoli, the capital, and Benghazi, in the east, where the counter-revolution against Gaddafi began. Areas in the south of the country have armed themselves against the US-installed regimes in Tripoli and Benghazi often in sympathy with the previous system under the Jamahiriya.

The two regional states that participated in the imperialist-engineered war against Libya, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have been carrying out periodic airstrikes against alleged “Islamist” strongholds in various locations in the east and west. Also renegade former Gen. Khalifa Hefter, a longtime Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset, has mounted a bid for power utilizing sophisticated weapons and airstrikes.

Oil production rising despite internal conflict

For several months during 2014, oil production in Libya was down considerably. Conflicts between various labor organizations in addition to clashes among the militias resulted in the decline of barrels-per-day extraction to almost nil.
A dispute over who could actually sell Libyan oil on the international market was eventually addressed by the US when it sent a naval warship to reclaim cargo traded by interests inside the country who were not endorsed by Washington. Subsequent efforts aimed at the resolution of the disagreements have still not cleared the way for a consistent boost in production.
Unrest has erupted again surrounding which political group claiming authority in Libya would control the proceeds from oil sales. Both the parties controlling the capital of Tripoli, who are often labeled as “Islamists,” and the “government in exile” in the eastern city of Tobruk say they are entitled to the revenue generated from the trade in oil.
With the decline in prices on the global market during October, the situation involving the struggle over the control of oil in Libya prompted the attention of the Wall Street Journal. Efforts by five Western countries designated by the United Nations to reach a political settlement in the Libyan quagmire has failed, and consequently, the major imperialist powers are concerned about the supply of oil and the role of Libya in the process.

“In a joint statement late Saturday, France, Italy, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. said they supported the U.N.-sponsored peace talks and a cessation of hostilities,” noted the Wall Street Journal. “The five governments condemned the violence by Islamist group Ansar al-Shariah, voiced concern about the attacks of the renegade general and said they were ready to sanction those threatening Libya’s security.” (Oct. 19)

This same article went on to point out that “Libya is normally one of Europe’s largest oil suppliers, but disruptions since the fall of strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 have reduced its contribution to the continent’s oil supply.” Therefore, even the publication of the international finance capital has to openly acknowledge that the Pentagon-NATO policy of regime-change in Libya has disrupted oil supplies to the European continent.

The Libya Dawn group, which is contesting control of the state with the ostensible moderate group led by Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani, who called themselves the House of Representatives, sent their own oil minister, Mashallah al-Zawie, to Turkey to participate in an industry conference held in Istanbul. The rival group headed by al-Thani based in Tobruk dismissed the Central Bank director Sadiq Kabir and claims they have control of the revenue from oil sales.

Nonetheless, the Wall Street Journal reports that “officials at NOC (the state-owned National Oil Co.) and at the central bank subsidiary which receives payments from oil buyers said revenues had continued to flow to its Tripoli-based accounts. Mr. al-Kabir also remains in office, they said.”

Such confusion over which entity controls Libyan oil could very well hamper the country’s future production and exports projections. Libyan oil officials say production is at 850,000 barrels a day, marking an increase of 40,000 barrels compared with earlier in October, suggesting that some facilities have boosted their output. In contrast, operations at oil fields in eastern Libya have been interrupted by labor unrest led by workers seeking jobs at the facilities.

Imperialists continue proxy war in Libya

The present situation in Libya is the direct result of the war of regime-change led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Pentagon and NATO during 2011. US policy is designed to overthrow all of the sovereign and anti-imperialist governments throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Consequently, the outcome of the current situation in the regions of North Africa and the Middle East will be critical in the future course of imperialist militarism worldwide. Obviously, these policies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Syria and Libya have prompted massive destabilization of these societies, including the vast increase in the number of internally displaced persons and refugees.
Libya, which under the years of the Jamahiriya-Gaddafi rule was the most prosperous state in Africa, is now a major source of instability in the region.The response of aerial bombardments from Egypt and the UAE will only further the generalized sense of lawlessness and terror.
Only the Libyan people themselves, united around a political program of national unity, and genuine sovereignty will be able to reverse the current malaise. The plans suggested involving the direct intervention of thousands of NATO troops to Libya under the rubric of the United Nations would eventually result in greater anti-Western sentiments already prevalent throughout the country.
What the role of the US in Libya has proven is that Washington and Wall Street have no rational policy towards Africa and the Middle East. Their interventionist posture will only breed more anti-US consciousness and mass resistance to imperialist control.
AA/HJL

‘Israel drops cancer-inducing bombs on Gazans’

A Norwegian doctor in the besieged Gaza Strip has strongly criticized Israel for using cancer-inducing bombs against Palestinian civilians.

Dr. Erik Fosse told Press TV that the majority of patients hospitalized in Gaza are civilians injured in attacks on their homes and about thirty percent of them are children.

Dense Inert Metal Explosive, known as DIME, is an explosive device developed to minimize collateral damage in warfare.

Experts say it has a relatively small but effective blast radius and is believed to have strong biological effects on those who are hit by the bomb’s micro-shrapnel.

Fosse, a department head at a university hospital in Oslo, also says some Palestinian in the besieged enclave have been wounded by a new type of weapon that even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize.

Israel also used depleted-uranium and white phosphorus shells in the besieged region during their previous assaults.

This comes as Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip for the sixth straight day. The latest Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 32 Palestinians in the besieged territory.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Muammar Gaddafi was toppled, but why is there still no sign of calm in the country?

Freeman: The destruction of the nation of Libya is designed to carry out policy of chaos and death across northern Africa.

Al-Qaeda now is virtually in control of the country and we’ve created a monster that is out of control except if you recognize that that’s the intention.

Press TV: Many say that the deteriorating situation in Libya, what we’re seeing now, is actually a legacy of NATO forces. What do you think?

Freeman: We know that the Syrian operation is a continuation of the Libyan operation, which is a policy that was put forth by Tony Blair and the British to destroy this area of the world.

And if we go ahead with the regime change policy in Syria as the British are advocating, then you will see more death and destruction and possibly war with Russia. This is a very, very dangerous policy that is being pursued by the West at this time.

Press TV: The way you’re relating the intervention into Libya by NATO to the Syrian crisis. What you’re saying is we might perhaps see NATO forces be stationed in Syria. Am I correct?

Freeman: Whether it is actually NATO forces or not, the policy right now is to remove the president.

And we’ve been working with al-Nusra, which is a well known al-Qaeda operation and in fact its credible intelligence that one of the operations that was being run out of Benghazi, that led to the attack against our ambassador there, was shipping arms into Syria for support of the al-Qaeda insurgents.

So this is very much a continuation of the Libya policy. Whether there is troops on the ground or not we could see massive chaos throughout the entire Middle East and Persian Gulf region and most dangerously a direct military conflict with Russia. And that’s what some of the wiser people in our military defense institutions now are actually opposing President Obama on escalating the policy for war in Syria.

Press TV: Let’s talk about the integrity of Libya. How close are we to seeing the country being divided into federal states?

Freeman: The country right now has absolutely been destroyed. Once you passed this law that forbade anyone to work with Gaddafi and his government for 40 years, you have various militias in various parts of the county doing exactly what they want: intimidating officials, assassinations and bombings. So, you don’t have a country anymore. And essentially this is the closest thing a country run by al-Qaeda, which the US supported. This is a US, Tony Blair, British creation. So we don’t really have a sovereign country anymore, we’re looking at the destruction of a nation and control by al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda-related forces. It’s quite dangerous and quite disturbing.

Ben Affleck could be hanged for war crimes: US intelligence expert

Ben Afflek, Oscar winning director of Argo

Is Argo “just a movie?” Or is it a disguised intelligence operation – maybe even a war crime?

Kevin Barrett (PRESS TV),- These questions may soon be answered in court. Well-known French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre has met with Iranian officials planning a lawsuit against the makers and distributors of the controversial film.

Mohammad Lesani, General Secretary of Monday’s Hoax of Hollywood conference in Tehran, announced, “Argo is made by three film-producing companies in Hollywood…the Islamic Republic of Iran is going to sue all those who have been active in the anti-Iran domain, including directors and producers.”

If the makers of Argo are deposed under oath, they may be forced to reveal that their film — like the fictitious film-within-the-film — is a covert operation disguised as a movie. One of America’s leading experts on covert operations believes that Argo is the propaganda project of an intelligence agency or agencies, and that its purpose is to convince the American people to go along with Israel’s plan to drag America into a war on Iran.

That expert, Barbara Honegger, was a Special Assistant to the President as well as White House Policy Analyst (1981-83), and worked for over a decade as Senior Military Affairs Journalist with the Naval Postgraduate School, the premiere science, technology and national security affairs graduate research university of the US Department of Defense. The author of October Surprise, she is one of America’s leading experts on ultra-secretive covert operations or “black ops.”

In a radio interview Tuesday on the Kevin Barrett Show, Honegger stated that filmmaker Ben Affleck might one day be hanged for war crimes and treason– not only for Argo, which she said is designed to pave the road to war on Iran, but also for his role in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor,an earlier intelligence operation designed to pave the road to the 9/11 “New Pearl Harbor.” According to Honegger, Affleck – like his character in Argo – appears to be a covert operator posing as a filmmaker.

At the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards, Pearl Harbor was nominated for six awards: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Ben Affleck), Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple, and Worst Remake or Sequel. This pathetic excuse for a movie cost over USD150 million. Whoever invested that USD150 million was not interested in making money – or even making a movie. Pearl Harbor had only one purpose: To spread the “Pearl Harbor” meme in the public mind in preparation for 9/11. In a sense, Pearl Harbor was like Argo’s fictional science fiction film-within-a-film: It was a fake movie, but a real intelligence operation.

Donald Rumsfeld, like Affleck and the makers of Pearl Harbor, spent 2000 and 2001 hyping the “Pearl Harbor” meme in preparation for 9/11.According to Swiss researcher TH Meyer, Rumsfeld gave away hundreds if not thousands of copies of Roberta Wohlstetter’s book Pearl Harbor, ‘Warning and Decision.’ (Roberta Wohlstetter was the wife of neocon godfather and rabid Zionist Albert Wohlstetter, Paul Wolfowitz’s mentor, named in his obiturary “The world’s most influential unknown figure of the past half-century.”)

Rumsfeld’s (and Affleck’s) Pearl Harbor propaganda campaign set the stage for the chorus of “Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor” on September 11th, 2001. On Air Force One, as Bush flew from Florida to Nebraska, the event was already being framed as a new Pearl Harbor. Henry Kissinger quickly echoed the Pearl Harbor comparison. Zbigniew Brezezinski pronounced, “It (9/11) is more murderous even than Pearl Harbor, and the psychological impact is the same.” On the evening of September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush reportedly confided to his diary, “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.”

In Argo, the fake film (and real covert operation) is a CIA project, and Affleck plays a CIA agent. But were the Pearl Harbor and Argo movies covert operations by the CIA or by the Israeli Mossad?

Barbara Honegger, who has been studying intelligence agencies and their covert operations for three decades, said that both films “appear to have made by the CIA – or worse.” I asked what she meant by “or worse.” Honegger suggested that the criminal, drug-smuggling, 9/11-complicit “Bush crime family” wing of the CIA may have been working with the Israeli Mossad in all three co-productions: The movies Pearl Harbor and Argo, and the 9/11 covert operation itself.

Honegger voiced her hopes that the Argo covert operation will “blow up in Ben Affleck’s face.” How?

According to Honegger, Argo has stimulated US public interest in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis – and that as a result, the story of the 1980 “October Surprise” that overthrew US president Jimmy Carter in a CIA coup d’étatis being picked up by the mainstream media. She pointed to a March 5th Christian Science Monitor story reporting the testimony of then-Iranian-president Bani-Sadr, who has repeatedly confirmed that George H.W. Bush and William Casey made a deal with top Iranian leaders to keep the US hostages locked up long enough to ensure the defeat of then-US-president Jimmy Carter.

Honegger stated that the Bush-linked criminal wing of the CIA, in some cases together with the Israeli Mossad, perpetrated several of the worst crimes in recent history, including the JFK assassination and the 9/11 false-flag event. She said that the same forces, led by extremist Likud elements in Israel, are planning to launch a war on Iran, via a false-flag attack against a US ship in the Persian Gulf, by this summer. According to Honegger, the exposure of the 1980 October Surprise can help prevent such a war.

Will Ben Affleck, and other covert operators working to launch a criminal war of aggression against Iran, ever be brought to justice? Iran’s lawsuit against the makers of Argo is a good place to start.

Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is http://www.truthjihad.com. Dr. Kevin Barret has been contributing to nsnbc international since March 2013.